Creative and Crafty Fun Inspiration

Art and craft is a favourite activity for the majority of children regardless of the weather. Indoors or out there is always somethig to make, to fix, to build and of course to get messy with.

Here we share some of our favourite creative or crafty projects for you to add to your collection. Don't forget to comment with yours so we may do the same!

Get Outside

Collect up seasonal treats such as pretty leaves, twigs and more to great a nature bowl, a collage or similar. Whether you want to take advantage of pinecones, conkers and colourful autumn leaves or fresh green grasses and wildflowers seen in spring and summer is up to you.

Fun with Magnets

For less messy play or for an activity you want your little ones to enjoy time and time again why not look at some of these fabulous Fiesta Crafts Magnetic Mosaics?

There are a number of different designs to try and all are perfect for whipping out when the rain arrives and you hear the dreaded words "I'm bored!".

Paper Craft

Paper Craft covers a wide range of fun activities. You can print out 3D shapes and models for older children, run origami challenges, make a collage.... the possibilities are endless! Try using chalks or a white pen on black paper for something different.

Beading

Colourful beads provide hours of colourful crafty fun making jewellery, snakes and more. What's more this type of activity also helps little ones to practice and develop their motor skills so is a winner all round.

Scrapbooking

This is an activity that children love. Collect together pieces of coloured paper, pictures, odds and ends, photographs and more and let the children fill their scrapbooks with memories of special days out, pages about their family or their friends, their favourite colour, animal, letter..... the possibilities are endless. Scrapbooking is not only great fun and offers a brilliant creative outlet, it also helps build some fabulous keepsakes for you to all look back on when they are older.

What have your favourite creative or crafty projects been? Which ones do your children ask to do again and again?

Keeping Precious Memories Safe

Our little ones grow up so incredibly fast. One minute we are waving scan pictures around in excited anticipation and the next we are waving them into school for their first day, while desperately trying to hold back the tears. One thing that many parents are told when expecting a little one is that their early years especially seem to go so very fast, and they really do!  

From the moment they are born we start collecting mementoes and special items. Some babies are photographed mere seconds after they were born and these snaps are tucked safely away, hospital ID bracelets and even first curls are kept safe. How do you keep special memories safe? 

A Baby  / Memory Box There are some fabulous memory boxes or baby boxes which either come decorated or allow you to add pictures and more, personalising them. These offer a safe place to store mementoes such as baby's birth weight / ID cards if you opted for a hospital birth, scan pictures, first curls, letters to Santa and more. 

A Safe Box Perhaps not as pretty as a dedicated memory box or indeed any type of sealable storage box a safe box, or fireproof box is something that some householders choose to use to store very important papers and keepsakes so that they are safe in the case of a fire etc. While not the cutest way to keep your special keepsakes together it is certainly an option. 

Journals and Scrap Books Many parents like the idea of a memory book or memory file to share those special times, a mixture of photographs, keepsakes, quotes, text, dates; anything you want to include all in one place. This option offers a perfect opportunity for putting everything together ready to hand over to your children when these tiny tots are all grown up and ready to have their own family. 

 Whether you choose a special memory book or prefer to put your scrapbooking skills to good use is up to you. 

In Frames There are some special items that should most definitely be out on display. Baby handprints framed and on the wall in the nursery for example, or that first piece of artwork from school or nursery that just needs to be admired. These types of special pieces also make fabulous gifts for grandparents! 

Laminating some drawings and paintings will protect them however be careful what you try and laminate as not all materials react well with the heat, becoming damaged. Scan pictures for example have been known to be damaged this way. 

How do you keep first curls, scan pictures, school certificates and more safe? Do you store them away in a box or perhaps display them in a book or a frame? We'd love to hear your creative ways of preserving irreplaceable items such as these. 

*Top tip: Little ones bring home so many wonderful pieces of artwork, junk models and stories as they progress through nursery and school. Keeping them all would be impossible however no-one wants to upset a little one by binning their favourite cereal box and toilet roll robot. A great way to get around all of this is to take a digital picture of everything you want to recycle, keeping it forever (because it's so wonderful).